The Portuguese fishing fleet had been fishing off the Grand Banks for years, catching cod by the boatload. "Discovery" is a late 15th century thing, part of the way that Europe was beginning to think about the world, which included not just finding but colonizing and dominating. Columbus's stumbling into the New World just fit into that new approach to things, much to the dismay of the natives of the "New" World.

Well they think ole' Red discovered America- New World, back in the 1000-1100s. So even the Portuguese were later than he was. I guess Europe either didn't get the memo or didn't understand the Viking language.

I always thought the Vikings were first. Problem was they were not part of the European "establishment", and centuries before the more modern explorers like Amerigo, Columbus, etc. Plus they did not colonize America so not much records to follow. If they had, we might be speaking Norweigan today !!

Not now. Not since airports and sea ports are shuffling us all together culturally. Yes, we all have our own unique histories, and perhaps even our favorite ancestry too, but the thing is, archeology has already got some pretty good evidence suggesting we share the same ancestry if we take it back far enough in time . This whole European, Asian, African, American thing may just turn out to be us selecting how far back we choose to look, drawing arbitrary lines around ourselves in the sands of time.

_________________________."...or am I a butterfly dreaming she's a woman?"

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